


Collars and Treats

by Tsuki_Amano



Category: Captain America (Comics), Captain America (Movies), Captain America - All Media Types, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: AU, Everything is Beautiful and Nothing Hurts, Fluff, M/M, Meet-Cute, Pet Store, Pets, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-23
Updated: 2016-10-23
Packaged: 2018-08-24 05:54:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,923
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8359756
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tsuki_Amano/pseuds/Tsuki_Amano
Summary: There are a lot of things that Sam Wilson loves about his job. The pay's good, the people are nice, his boss doesn't hate him and he's being paid to work with animals. It's like a dream come true. For the last few months though, he's had an added incentive to come in to work, in the form of one very eager customer who's pretty easy on the eyes.All in all, Sam thinks he's got a good thing going.





	

Sam’s got his head bent over the crossword when the door chimes. He looks up and his heart skips a beat when he sees who it is.

There are a lot of things that Sam loves about working in the local pet store. For one, he loves animals. He’d wanted to be a veterinarian growing up, but when he hadn’t been able to afford the cost of college, he’d decided this was the next best thing. Spending an entire day with animals was close to heaven for him. Not to mention that the pay was reasonably good and his boss was a cheerful man that generally left Sam to his own devices.

He loved the look on children’s faces when they came in and found a pet that they wanted to take home. More than that, he loved knowing that the animals had found a good home to go to and that his precious charges would be going to good families.

Sometimes he’d see older people, otherwise surly teenagers, stressed out adults, quiet elders, wander into his shop and walk around till they found something that they wanted. He’d had a young woman who had come in the other day with her sister, and they’d both happily adopted a cranky three-legged cat that had terrorised almost all his other customers.

When he’d initially warned them about the cat’s temperament, the older of the pair had smiled at him before nodding at her younger sister who’d somehow charmed old Fury, the ball of fur curled up in her arms, purring as she stroked him. It was all about finding the right match, she’d said.

But off-late, Sam had a whole new reason to love his job.

About a month ago, the door had chimed and when Sam had looked towards the entrance, his eyes had widened as one of the most handsome men he’d seen in a long time walked in. Wearing a fitting blue t-shirt that showed off the fact the man clearly worked out, and worn black jeans, he’d pulled off a baseball cap and run his hand through his blond hair.

Forcing himself to remember how to breathe, Sam had walked up to the customer and greeted him. When the man ( _Steve, he’d said his name was_ ) had given him a smile that reminded him of sunshine and flashed bright blue eyes at him, Sam had firmly told himself that his customer was off limits. Not only was it unprofessional, but Steve was holding a little girl’s hand firmly in his own. With the way he smiled at her and called her sweetheart, he was probably her father and there was no way Sam was hitting on a married man.

They’d come in looking for a dog, Steve explained, glancing down at the young girl. When Sam had smiled at her, she’d flushed and hidden behind Steve’s leg, prompting him to burst out laughing. Sam tried not to gape at the open expanse of neck that was on display when he tipped his head back.

“She’s a little shy sometimes, aren’t you princess?” Steve had said soothingly, before smiling warmly at Sam.

At the end of their search, they’d decided to adopt an older dog, a rescue named Lucky. Fiercely loyal and good with kids, he was often over-looked because of the fact he was older and couldn’t see out of one eye. The moment she had seen him though, the little girl, Wanda, had tugged on Steve’s hand and pointed at him eagerly.

Lucky’s head cocked up eagerly when he saw the pair approach and Sam watched as his tail began to thump. He was rather attached to the dog, but he was glad to see someone else giving him affection.

“He’s fantastic with kids,” he informed Steve, as they watched Lucky roll on his back and present his belly to Wanda.

Watching Wanda giggle and rub Lucky’s stomach, he smiled, “Seems like it.”

Steve fills out the necessary paperwork, buys some essentials like a leash and new collar, dog shampoo and some food. He picks up a bunch of pamphlets about canine health and vaccinations and blinks up at Sam, baby blue eyes adorably confused as he asks about whether Sam could recommend a good veterinarian.

“As a matter of fact I can,” he says, and hands him a card. It was good business to be friends with a veterinarian because they had a mutual policy of recommending the other establishment whenever possible. Plus, Bruce was fantastic with animals and it made Sam happy to know that his precious babies were going to be well-looked after.

Pocketing the card, Steve pulls out his wallet and asks him for the total. “That’s great, her dad’ll be really happy to know that there’s a vet nearby.” He shakes his head fondly as he watches Wanda talk to Lucky, in that serious way only kids can.

“It’s her dad’s birthday today,” he explains. “My niece and I thought it would be a nice surprise present, we know he’s been eyeing a dog for a few months, ever since he decided to take some time off and stay home a bit more.”

“Wait,” he blurts out, before his brain can stop, “Your niece?”

Steve looks surprised, “Yeah, Wanda is my brother’s daughter.”

And the heavens are smiling at him, because Steve might not be married after all. But oh, now he probably thinks Sam is a jerk because that sounded rude, even to his own ears.

“I just assumed…” he stammers and breaks off, but thankfully Steve saves him and interjects, “Don’t worry about it. I love his kids, they’re adorable. Both her parents used to work, so I looked after them a lot, which is why I’m pretty close to them, so it’s an unsurprisingly common mistake people make.”

“She seems like a sweet kid though,” Sam says, as he watches Lucky nudge against her legs, a sure sign he wanted to be petted.

Looking fondly at her, he says, “She is.”

When they leave, Steve warmly thanks Sam for all his help and shakes his hand. Sam tries to ignore how big the other man’s hand is and how strong his grip is. He almost swallows his tongue when Steve says, almost shyly, that he hopes he’ll see him around soon.

Sam kind of hopes he’ll see him again too.

It’s another week before he gets his wish.

He’s in the back taking stock of the new arrival of supplements when Riley calls him out to help one of the customers. When he comes out to the main shop, Riley nods towards the back aisles and returns to helping an elderly lady pick out vitamins for her cat.

He makes his way over, only to find none other than Steve Rogers bent over the packets of dog food and Sam gets an excellent view of how well the jeans he’s wearing fit certain areas of him. No longer paying attention to where he’s walking, he manages to knock an entire row of dog collars off their peg, and as they fall to the ground with a loud clatter, they catch Steve’s attention.

Glancing over, his eyes widen with recognition when he sees Sam and he straightens up, his face breaking into a wide smile.

Sam’s heart does not skip a beat.

He gets onto his knees next to Sam and helps him pick up the collars despite Sam’s protests and every so often, his hands brush against Sam’s. When they’re done, he stands up first and extends a hand to Sam, pulling him up effortlessly.

“Clint wanted me to pick up some food for Lucky on the way back,” he says, rubbing his neck, “But I don’t know the first place to start and I was wondering if you’d be able to help.”

“Well, since Lucky’s an older dog, he’d need different nutritional requirements than a puppy would, so what you’re looking at right now wouldn’t be the best for him. But since he’s not too old, it’s easier for him to digest certain things, so I’d say…this one would be the best. But that’s my personal opinion,” he says with a smile.

Steve takes the bag from him and mulls it over for a few seconds before smiling at him, “I trust you Sam, I’m sure this will be great.”

Sam pointedly ignores the knowing smirk Riley gives him when he checks out Steve’s purchase and the poorly disguised laugh when Steve thanks him earnestly and tells him he hopes he’ll see him again soon. As he leaves, Sam can’t help but think he reminds him of their golden retrievers.

Steve soon becomes a regular in their shop.

He’s back a few days later to buy vitamins for Lucky, then to buy some toys, then more toys and then anti-flea powder.

A week later, he’s back to ask for grooming tips, and then to ask for tips on how to train a dog.

Slowly their conversations become longer and longer and shift to non-pet related topics, not that Sam minds.

One day, Steve fixes him with that sunshine smile of his and says, “You’re a real swell guy Sam,” before he leaves and Sam has to bite his lips to try and keep himself from smiling.

But there’s no sign that the attraction isn’t one-sided and that Steve’s anything but friendly.

Which is why he doesn’t allow himself too much hope when he sees Steve walk in today. He’s with another man, who’s shorter and stockier, but also blond. This must be Clint, he surmises and he smiles at the pair when they walk up to the counter.

“Run out of dog food already?” he asks Steve with a teasing grin and watches the man get flustered and stumble out something about a dog toy. Meanwhile his brother watches the interaction, before crossing his arms across his chest and huffing out a breath.

“This is getting pathetic.” He leans over the counter and looks at Sam.

“Hi, you don’t know me, but my brother here is head-over-heels for you and has been pining over you like a lovesick puppy ever since he first met you. Unfortunately, he’s completely useless at getting a date, even though, by the looks of it, you like him too. So, in the interest of moving things along, please let him take you out for coffee. Because if I need to hear him talking about how nice he thinks your eyes are one more time, I’m taking out my hearing aids. Also, we really don’t have space for any more dog toys. Now you two make nice while I go to the back of the shop and pretend to give you some privacy.”

Steve’s face is bright red and he squirms as Sam looks amusedly at him.

“You think my eyes are nice huh?”

“I mean… they are… quite nice and I…”

“He thinks they’re beautiful, Steve come on, work with me here!”

“Clint, shut up!” Steve snaps, before his eyes widen and he whirls around.

He looks like a school-kid whose hand was caught in the cookie jar and Sam cracks up when he sees the look on his face.

Taking pity on the other man, he scrawls his number on a piece of paper, leaning forward and pressing a kiss to Steve’s cheek. He places the folded paper in Steve’s shirt pocket, before muttering in his ear, “I’m off this Friday evening. And for the record, I think your eyes are nice too.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first time I've ever written this pairing but I really love Sam Wilson. And I read an article about a pet shop today and this came to mind.


End file.
